I have never seen a group of pessimistic people like the average Nigerian football fan. Days to the much talked about friendly match between the Super Eagles and the Catalonian selected, they had written off the Eagles and predicted disgusting scorelines against the side Stephen Keshi is preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations which begins in South Africa in about two weeks time.

It is complicated. And it would be even more complicated. Certain events happen in the life of a nation and those events change the course of history for that nation. Nigeria is no exception. For good or ill, some individuals are thrust on a nation as leaders and their actions and in-actions, consciously or sub-consciously, mould the nation’s path to greatness or otherwise.

AS the CAF deadline for the submission of team’s final 23-man list approaches, Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi is “growing grey hairs” over picking his squad for the Africa Nations Cup, officials have said.

When on Friday December 7, 2012, I read the headline ‘SENATE KICKS AGAINST EXTRA 9 billion naira for Vice-President’s residence’, in one of our national dailies, I felt very frustrated and disappointed, and I began to doubt if our rulers are really aware of the myriad problems Nigeria faces, and how to combat them. Or perhaps they do know, but don’t know which are of utmost importance to the nation.

Unprecedented levels of violence and public insecurity or disorder have marred the Nigerian social space, so much indeed that Nigerians at every level now live with a siege mentality. A significant level of this state of siege is encouraged and maintained by irresponsible political leadership.